


Illusion

by Small_Hobbit



Category: Lewis (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-24
Updated: 2014-02-24
Packaged: 2018-01-13 16:09:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1232824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Small_Hobbit/pseuds/Small_Hobbit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lewis explains to Hathaway that many things are not as they seem and it is up to us to decide how they should be interpreted.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Illusion

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the pic for 1,000 comm on LJ, for this picture: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ekkyp/8390979352/
> 
> Inspiration came from the following from the Moody Blues "Days of Future Passed"  
> Cold hearted orb that rules the night  
> Removes the colour from our sight  
> Red is gray and yellow white  
> But we decide which is right  
> And which is an illusion?

“We used to do that, you know,” Robbie Lewis said to James Hathaway, “when we were kids.”

“What?”

“Make shadow shapes with our hands. One would shine the torch on the wall, while the other made a rabbit or whatever and then we’d swap.”

“An illusion.”

“Yes, but we enjoyed it. There was a certain skill involved. Move your fingers correctly and the rabbit’s ears waggled; get it wrong and it became a blob.”

“A clever illusion.”

“You still thinking about Bryant?”

“Yeah.”

“Want to talk about it? There’s not much we can do until the power comes back on. Unless you want me to teach you how to waggle the ears on a bunny.”

“I don’t know why I believed Bryant. I’m supposed to be a police officer. Surely I should have seen through him?”

“He was very convincing. And he traded on the fact that people wanted to believe him.”

“But that makes it worse.”

“Why? You may be a detective sergeant but you’re still a human being.”

“You didn’t believe him.”

“Are you implying I’m not human?”

“No, sir. I meant...”

“I’m kidding you. You remember the incident with Max Clarke when he pissed Peterson off last week?”

“When Peterson changed the rotas in red pen and Clarke ignored them because he couldn’t see the changes as he is colour blind?”

“Yes. It was as if I didn’t see Bryant’s ‘illusion’ if that’s what you want to call it. The appeal he had was outside my interests and experiences. Even Laura found him interesting. And don’t forget we all create an illusion at times.”

“I don’t follow you, sir.”

“The illusion of being in charge, for example. Think of the times you’ve been at a difficult crime scene when all you want to do is turn and run away and yet you clamp down those feelings and get on with things.”

“I normally have you with me.”

“Do you think it’s any different for me?”

“Probably not.”

“Or when talking to a victim’s close relatives and remaining both compassionate and professional. Isn’t that an illusion?”

“But that’s necessary.”

“Who for, us or them?”

“Them.”

“My point precisely. The illusion is of value.”

“But we’re trained, so that we can provide this ‘illusion’.”

“What makes you think Bryant hadn’t trained? Maybe not in the formal sense, but he’d practised and improved his skill.”

Lewis’ phone rang. “Now what?”

He listened, made a few grunted responses and then turned to Hathaway.

“The engineers have found the cause of this outage. A dead body has shorted one of their cables.”

“Suicide or accident?”

“Neither. The corpse has its arms tied behind its back.”

In the car on the way Hathaway asked Lewis why it had taken so long to find the body.

“They had to test everything as they went along, to ensure that nothing was still live. Standard procedure, but time consuming.”

On arrival they found Laura sitting in her car waiting for the engineers to give her the all clear before going to examine the body. Lewis went to find the chief engineer whilst Hathaway joined Laura in her car.

A few minutes later and Laura was given the go ahead. She didn’t take long.

“He’s been dead for some hours, which means he wasn’t electrocuted and almost certainly killed elsewhere. I won’t know the actual cause of death until I perform the PM, but there’s no point in examining him here. You’ll need photos of course, but as soon as they’re done, he can be moved.”

Lewis and Hathaway left SOCO to see what they could find and headed to the station.

“It looks like someone else was out to create an illusion,” Lewis said. “But why?”

“To buy time? Whoever it was could have used any object to short out the power, but by using a body, they would know we would have to be called, which would take longer. And regardless of how quickly it was discovered that the dead man had been killed elsewhere, the perpetrator would know that it would all take time.”

“So we’re looking for something that required darkness.”

There was a pause as Lewis mulled something over.

Suddenly he said, “All cats look grey in the dark.”

“What, sir?”

“If it’s dark, then it’s easy for someone of similar build to pass themselves off as someone else. No lights to shine on faces, therefore the assumption is that the person you’ve seen is the person you expected to see. Go and check on any recent missing persons.”

“You think our corpse has had his place taken by someone else?”

“I think there’s a good possibility of it.”

Five minutes later Hathaway was back with details of a fifty year old man, reported missing by his wife that morning. He was a security guard at the museum where there was currently a display of a costly jewellery find from the Middle Ages.

“I’ve sent a couple of patrols to check the premises out. We can’t get hold of the duty manager for the security firm to see if anyone failed to turn up for work this evening, so I’ve arranged to meet the museum curator there.”

Lewis grabbed his coat and they left the building together.

At the museum, the curator confirmed that the duty manager had been there earlier, ostensibly ensuring things were okay despite the power cut. While Lewis and Hathaway went to speak to the two security guards, the curator went to check on the exhibition. Less than a minute later, he came running back.

“The pieces are there, but although they look correct, they’re not. Someone has replaced the originals with facsimiles,” he gasped.

The security guards heard the words and turned to run, but were prevented by the arrival of two uniformed officers. Realising they had been caught, they felt no compunction in shifting the blame onto the duty manager.

“And thus ends our final illusion of the night,” Lewis said happily as they headed home.


End file.
